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Episode 651
Stories Covered *Submarine cable cut torpedoes Middle East access *Amazon acquires Audible for $300 million *C Block hits reserve price *Verizon: We don't want to play copyright cop on our network *RIAA: No need to force ISPs by law to monitor piracy *Apple TV 2.0 delayed a week or two *Garmin announces...a cell phone? *Problems with airport security? Tell TSA on its new blog *California high court to hear Google age discrimination case *U.S. tops world connectivity scorecard despite broadband ills *MTV steps it up for election's Super Tuesday *Hey slob, profit from your pigsty *Inventor says he has a batter idea Discussion Highlights Tom wonders why he doesn't have as much vacation time as Molly (who will be gone for the next week). Tom concludes that Molly must be stealing vacation time from him. Group discusses the undersea cables that were cut. They jokingly reference the "undersea tubes". Tom thinks Amazon's buyout of Audible to be a good move. Molly hopes the buyout causes prices to fall but worries about the audible website being broken by Amazon. The real looser > SONY. Shockingly, Molly doesn't mind the Audible DRM. She thinks in the case of audio books, it is totally OK because you "just need to be more careful about picking your device". One can only wonder why she is unphased based on her prior rants about Apple DRM. Tom reports good news! The auction for 'C' block of the 700 Mhz Spectrum has met the reserve price at 4.7 Billion dollars. He unilaterally takes credit on behalf of buzztown for the success of the auction. Tom rants about his windows install on his Macbook Pro. For some reason, his apple TV does not sync with his windows itunes install. Tom does one of his best segways to date--transitioning from macbook air 'airport' issues to new FAA blog. Note to WIKI community... we need a new section for tom's segways. Tom and Jason both pretend to smoke marijuana when an emailer asks if U2 should be held liable for any illegal activities at their concerts. Quotes *''Well, they don't really need to sell that many Kindle's for it to be a success because the thing freekin expensive as I'll get out" - Molly *"alright... do your thing... do it up" - Molly *"Airports... they can be routers, they can also be places you board planes, and they can also have problems with airport security" - Tom *"that was beautiful; that was a work of art... a 'symphony', if you will" - Molly *"Sorry, Finland... and Sorry, Norway" - Tom *"Super Duper Tuesday!" - Molly From The Phones *''Kim in Pennsylavania" - points out that Ebay does not charge sellers for the fees on postage & handling *"Jim from Midway, Oh" - wonders if the FCC will meet the minimum bid for the spectrum auction... 4.6 billion for the auction and 6 billion for shipping. In the Forums no content... Emails (I included all the emails... please edit down if necessary) More grist for the copyright abuse mill Hey Buzz crew, Long time listener, but inactive responder as I am always listening to the previous day's podcast on my morning commute. I can't even pause and call on the cell phone while driving, (not that I would, of course) because I am already the proverbial day late and dollar short. So, this isn't in response to anything particular from a show, just a story from TechDirt on yet another salvo in the Culture of Ownership wars (see link and excerpt below). Heh (not LOL)--maybe you already talked about it today. BTW: After fixing Netizen usage of "its" and "it's", could you please do something about "loose" and "lose." Arghhh! Love the show, love the rants! Best, Bob in New Jersey --------------------------------- Should U2 be held responsible? In regards to the story in episode 650 about U2. My question is, if U2 should be held to the same standards for any criminal activity that occurs at their concerts? Should they have to collect and provide lists of concert-goers, track activity, and be held responsible for any illegal activity that might occur at their concerts? 'Nuff said. Darrin in New York ------------------------------- Hi Jason, Molly, Tom (thought I would shake up the order), I am writing concerning my fellow countryman, Paul McGuinness and his comments on ISPs, episode 650. I think he is totally disingenuous, he rants about ISPs destroying music. I totally agree that to compel ISPs to introduce mandatory service disconnections to end unauthorized downloading, is total madness. He specifically accused companies such as Apple, Google, and Facebook of building "multibillion dollar industries on the back of our content without paying for it". Could that be because he could then sue the world's richest men for a lot more money to stick in his Dutch U2 bank account now, would it Paul? These comments are rich, forgive the pun, considering this same individual and his band U2, moved their finances-- Euro 690 million, to evade Euro 15 million in taxes. Why then should the average individual concern themselves over huge businesses that abuse our tax systems, to ensure their ability to buy bigger silver spoons? Boo hoo hoo Paul, Bono etc. Paul wants to "shift the focus of moral pressure away from the individual P2P thief and on to the multibillion dollar industries that benefit from these tiny crimes." Also, could this be the same individual who signed a multimillion dollar deal with Apple back in 2004 on behalf of U2 so that they would help promote the iPod with the sale of their own limited edition versions. I totally agree with you, Tom and Molly, that no business should have to support another business. Anyway great show, listen all the time for about a year, great to distract me at work. Cheers, Mike ---------------------------------- Technology breaking the ice Hey Buzzards, Ankh in Dublin here. In episode 650 you played a call from someone who had listened to two Zune users hooking up on the back of a bus. Well, I have trumps on that one: Last night an attractive girl sat beside me on the DART; she seemed to be crying, so I set about trying to cheer her up. I whipped out my HP tx1000, snapped it into tablet mode and we drew some silly pictures together. She cheered up. Mission complete! -Keep up the good work. and tell that Merritt to expect an angry e-mail from me soon. Ankwatcher ------------------------------------- Did you say Singapore sells iPhones? Hey BOL crew, I'm in the army, so I only download episodes over the weekend and listen to them over a week, so forgive me for being slow on this one. Anyway, on episode 648, Tom was responding to the e-mail from the guy from Thailand who sees iPhones everywhere, mentioning that "if Thailand has that many, you gotta figure Singapore..." would have them selling everywhere too. Well actually, a few weeks ago, Apple sent letters to every Singapore retailer selling unlocked iPhones telling them that it is illegal to do so and that they will fine them $1,000 (not sure U.S. or Singapore dollars) per iPhone they sell! (I may be wrong about the price, it's on iLounge.com. Their mobile version only goes so far back.) I think they said something about copyright infringement, because you pay for the license to use but not modify the phone. Can't really remember. I asked people in the industry about this and they said some guy here signed Singapore up for a stricter DMCA that doesn't allow unlocking. We've never heard of subsidy locks before the iPhone, you see. It's illegal for carriers to lock phones here. So the only iPhones around here are either purchased before Apple stepped in or are doing it in the dark. Yeah. As if not bringing the iTunes store here wasn't bad enough. Just thought I'd throw in that "well actually." Oh, and really love the show, been listening before Veronica was on board. :) Dan the Singapore podcaster P.S. I love the newsletter 'cos I can't get to the BOL blog while at work (well, I could, but my phone's browser won't load it properly), so I rely on reading them in my Gmail mobile from my Nokia E61 when I'm in my army camp. In fact, sometimes I read them instead of listening to the show 'cos I've collected too much backlot over the weekend, and there's no time to listen during the weekdays. --------------------------------- Weather control Hey Jason, or China, I was outside shoveling the 35cm of snow we got today (with 120km/h winds and -30C windchill that shut down our whole city and closed about 700km of highway in northern Ontario) while listening to today's BOL. So, umm, could Jason or China do something about this? On the plus side, my neuropharm students missed a midterm, so there is that. Dave (the snow-shoveling psychologist) --------------------------------------- Beware the Mollet! Ben from Highland, Illinois Go Bulldogs! BTW, Tom, thank god for the DMV in Greenville--it is way better than Edwardsville's two-hour wait! Additional Notes none. After The Credits * we can scratch #9 off the list of how the world ends. 633